Ross was in his office when he got the knock on the door. Everyone had to face the music at some point, and by music he meant paperwork, so he was spending his non-ER shift taking care of that.

He was also spending it texting Tom, but hey, who was going to know?

The last couple of weeks had been sort of like when he was back in college and med school and flirting with anyone he could. It never got into anything serious—he hadn’t had time for that, between school and his side jobs to pay for college—but he’d really enjoyed just bantering and flirting with someone. It made him feel special, made him smile, and he liked to think that he was brightening the other person’s day as well.

Tom was pretty busy, and his leg kept him from being able to really go out much, and Ross’s schedule was, predictably, all over the place. But by texting each other, they were able to talk continuously throughout the day. It wasn’t quite as good as getting to see each other in person, but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.

They’d had a few stay-in dates, which had been really nice. It was super casual, which he’d appreciated. Jeremy had always tried to link work with dating. Each date couldn’t just be a date, it also had to be some charity event or social gathering or something, so that Jeremy could scope out gossip for the column at the same time. It had made every date feel like work.

This, though, didn’t feel like work. It was fun to see each other, and try out different takeout places nearby, and work through all the movies that Ross hadn’t gotten around to seeing. Tom wanted things casual, and that meant that he wasn’t asking anything of Ross, wasn’t putting a ton of rules and demands on him, and that was a huge relief.

It meant Ross actually was starting to care for Tom more than he’d expected. Enough that he might even say he was infatuated. Enough that he might want something a little more serious, if he could work up the courage to ask for it.

Ross knew he’d been going around with an idiotic smile on his face. He’d had some coworkers ask if he’d gotten some good news lately.

He hadn’t told anyone that he had a new boyfriend, since he’d wanted to kind of keep it to himself. With Jeremy, he hadn’t said anything because Jeremy had asked him not to. Jeremy had asked him not to tell people a lot of things. When they went out to parties, to the rich and locally famous, they were a couple, but to their friends and colleagues, apparently not.

But this, with Tom, it just felt so new and exhilarating, Ross wanted to keep it just for him for a little while longer.

Ross put his phone away and stared at the door as the person knocked again. Huh. He had a couple of consulting appointments in a little while, but nothing for at least half an hour, so he wasn’t sure who could be knocking. Maybe there was a patient in the ER who required his expertise?

“Come in,” he called, moving the paperwork to the side.

The door opened and—oh, for fuck’s sake.

Speak of the devil and all that.

Jeremy entered, closing the door behind him. Ross could admit that part of why Tom probably was so appealing to him was that Tom looked nothing like Jeremy. Jeremy had the same build as Tom, sure, but while Tom had dark hair and golden brown eyes, Jeremy was a light blond with blue-gray eyes.

And while Tom exuded this air of awkwardness that was endearing, Jeremy always had to be the coolest person in the room. He had to be the funniest, the one on top of his game, the suave guy who always had a smooth line to deliver. Not a hair was out of place, he’d certainly never be caught wearing glasses, and he was happy to break the bank over his fancy ass suits.

Ross had no problem with anybody spending their money however they wanted to, but there was this superior way that Jeremy wore his suits, and how he presented himself. It was like he wasn’t wearing anything or looking any certain way because of how he wanted to look. It was like he wore it only to feel better than everyone else, to make them feel like they were underdressed compared to him.

Ross felt like pointing out that as a tabloid reporter, wouldn’t it be easier if Jeremy wore, say, running shorts and tennis shoes, so he could run away from the angry celebrities chasing after him?

But Ross didn’t want to say that, because if he did, Jeremy would just snark right back at him, and then it would be an all-out argument, and Ross really just wanted to get the asshole out of his office as fast as possible.

“Ross,” Jeremy said, smiling. Once, Ross had loved that smile, and did any number of things to get it. Now, he thought it looked oily. “How’s it been? You look good.”

“Wish I could say the same for you,” Ross said, unable to help himself. “What do you want? I don’t have any gossip for you.”

Jeremy’s smile grew sharp, like a shark’s. “No, no, I’m afraid this time, you are the gossip.”

Ross rolled his eyes. “Oh no, did I operate on somebody important?” He hadn’t, as far as he knew. He was pretty sure he would’ve been told if he’d operated on a movie star or politician or something—at least, after the surgery.

“Yes, actually,” Jeremy replied. “Important to you, anyway.”

Ross felt his stomach curl in on itself as he started to suspect what Jeremy was driving at. But he wasn’t going to give Jeremy the satisfaction of having Ross admit to anything. “I’m sorry, I don’t follow.”

Jeremy sighed, in that way of his that made it sound like he was just so disappointed in Ross. Ross gritted his teeth. It had been one of the many little things that Jeremy had done to make him feel less than, like he was always messing up.

Compare that to Tom, who constantly congratulated Ross—well. It was a hell of a contrast.

“Your boyfriend,” Jeremy clarified. “You know, the one that you operated on?”

“I’m sorry, how would you know if I do or don’t have a boyfriend?” Ross asked.

“People talk,” Jeremy replied with a shrug.

“Nobody who knows me well enough to know if I have a boyfriend would talk to you about it,” Ross replied. Nobody from Joe’s would talk to Jeremy if he started nosing around, that was for certain.

“Oh, no, it was a beautiful coincidence,” Jeremy said.

“You sure? Because I’m starting to wonder if I should bring you up on stalking charges.”

“Someone I was doing a story on hired your boyfriend’s firm,” Jeremy said. “I was trying to get some information from them—”

“Oh, so you weren’t stalking me, you were stalking some other poor sap.”

“Well, I made small talk, as is natural, and they told me all about the cute paralegal at the firm. Pity, he told me, he already had a boyfriend, a surgeon, great-looking guy. And you know, my instincts just went off, so I asked a few more questions…”

“And then went straight to the hospital to see what you could dig up before coming to me and dumping all of your information on me so it looks like you have the upper hand. You do realize how manipulative that is, right? You can’t treat relationships like a battle strategy.”

“Somebody sounds like a psychiatrist,” Jeremy said, his voice turning sour.

“Somebody needed some damn therapy after what you put me through,” Ross shot back. He’d only gone to a couple of sessions, and he’d mostly talked about his mom. But it had been helpful.

Jeremy tsked. “Honestly, you’re so dramatic. You always took things so hard and so personally.”

“And you always minimized my feelings and made me feel like I didn’t have a right to talk about how I felt, but y’know, semantics at this point, seeing as you’re not in my life anymore and I’d like it to stay that way, thanks.”

He just wanted this to be over with. He wanted Jeremy to say whatever he’d come to say and then get the hell out. Already, he felt exhausted and paranoid.

And what the hell did it say about Jeremy that he'd heard this one paralegal was dating a hot surgeon and immediately started digging, just in case it was Ross? Obsessive, much? Did Ross need to get a restraining order?

“Your coworkers had some fascinating observations,” Jeremy said, and oh hell, of course. Office gossip coming back to bite him in the ass. “Seems that you operated on this one guy with whom you seemed very close. Had the same leg injury as that paralegal.

“You sat with him for hours after the operation, you visited one of his physical therapy appointments, and now you’re walking around happy all the time. The others can’t help but think you’ve got someone who’s making you happy, if you know what I mean.”

Translation: Ross is finally getting laid, maybe he’ll be less cranky and stop snapping at the rest of us.

“Jeremy, look, I’ve got a lot of shit to do,” Ross said with a sigh. “So if you’ve got something you want to say to me, then could you just say it? I need to finish this paperwork before I move onto my appointments.”

He’d really been looking forward to his appointments, too. He loved the ER, but he was trying out this other aspect to see if maybe he could get more of a balance of the two, and have a slightly more regular schedule.

Jeremy folded his arms. “You know that operating on a patient with whom you have a relationship is against the rules.”

“You know that this is literally none of your business, right?” Ross replied.

It was going to be fine, Ross told himself. He and Tom weren’t dating when he’d operated on him, he hadn’t known it was Tom, and they hadn’t started dating until after Ross stopped being his doctor. It was all fine.

Of course, that all depended on how the case was presented to the medical board. If Jeremy wanted to spin one of his stories—and he was good at those, he’d certainly gotten Ross to believe them all the time—Ross could easily see Jeremy convincing the board that this was something worth looking into. Ross would be suspended from work while the inquest went on.

And even if the inquest was then dismissed, it would cause more gossip. People would wonder for years: why had he been investigated? What had really gone on? Could they trust him?

In other words—not good news.

“Call me a concerned person who worried about you,” Jeremy replied. “I know your mom’s death was hard on you. It really changed you.”

Ross stood up, anger boiling inside of him. “Don’t you dare bring her into this.”

“I’m just saying that I wouldn’t be surprised if you behaved a bit more recklessly after her death,” Jeremy said, shrugging. “Sleeping with a patient, playing with the rules a little, pushing the limits, seeing if there’d be pushback. It’s perfectly natural.”

Ross was trying his best to keep his temper in check, but it was difficult. All he wanted to do was punch Jeremy in his smug little face. “Get out.”

“Responding with hostility, that isn’t a good sign,” Jeremy replied, smirking.

“You basically stalk me, and then invade my office and insinuate I’m breaking the medical code and bring up my dead mother—who I almost didn’t get to say goodbye to because you dragged me to that party. Yeah. I’d say I’ve got every right to respond with a bit of hostility.”

Ross dug his nails into his palms, reminding himself that punching Jeremy might feel good, but it would only make the situation worse. “Why did you even go to all of this trouble, huh? What are you getting out of this?”

For the first time, Jeremy’s smug façade started to slip and his eyes gleamed angrily. “Oh, I don’t know. I guess you could say I’m a bit petty when it comes to men who dump me without any warning.”

“You were a controlling asshole who wanted to run my life and made me feel like shit. I’d say you should’ve known I’d wise up eventually,” Ross shot back.

“You’re acting like I kept you chained in the basement or something,” Jeremy said mockingly. “My God.”

“And I’ll repeat: you just stalked me, based on a hunch, and are threatening to get me in huge trouble with my bosses. Do you—do you even see how you’re behaving? Are you actually managing to rationalize all of this?” Ross was honestly kind of dumbstruck.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. “I came here to warn you—”

“You came here to gloat and threaten me; let’s call a spade a spade.”

“Honestly, you’d think we never had any good times together,” Jeremy said, unfolding his arms and sticking them in his pockets, hunching his shoulders. It was like he was trying to make himself smaller, less threatening. “We used to have the best times. I used to make you laugh so hard you couldn’t breathe, don’t you remember?”

“You did,” Ross acknowledged. “Things were good at first. But they always are, aren’t they? If you came in swinging as an asshole, then I wouldn’t have bought into any of it later. I would’ve known right away that there was shitty stuff going on.

“But you were really great at first, and so I bought into that, and I kept buying into it even after you started showing me who you really were and started making me feel like shit.

“And when you were making me laugh, like you said—you were usually talking shit about the people you were writing stories about. It’s little things like that where I look back and I’m like, shit, did I really not see it? How could I not have understood?

“Your jokes were always at someone else’s expense. Your stories were all funny ways of insulting other people or putting them down. I should have known that it was only going to be a matter of time until the person who was the butt of the joke was me.”

Jeremy actually looked like he might be at a loss for words. Ross felt a savage roar of victory in his chest and tried to keep his face neutral. “You’ve literally come in here to threaten my job; I don’t see how that’s going to help me remember all of the good times. Now get out.”

“As if this guy’s even going to give you anything that you need,” Jeremy scoffed. “He doesn’t know you like I do.”

“Well thank God for that,” Ross replied. “Because the way you knew me was as a pushover who let himself be manipulated, and I don’t want anybody to know me like that again.”

“You’ve turned me into a monster in your head,” Jeremy shot back. “It’s not like it’s my fault your mom had cancer, Ross. I didn’t do that; I didn’t poison her or anything. Yet you’re lashing out at me because of that.”

“I’m angry with you because you took over my life and I spent less time with the people I cared about because of you,” Ross said, trying not to snap at him, trying not to sink too far down to his level.

“I was good to you,” Jeremy said staunchly. “And you’re going to see that one day. I wasn’t so bad. You’ve just made me out that way. It’s all on you. And when you’re done with this guy, or the next, or the next, at some point you’re going to see that.”

“Is this the part where you tell me I shouldn’t expect to come crawling back to you?” Ross said wearily. “Because I’ve seen enough movies; we can skip the rest of the dramatic speech and just get to the part where you leave.”

Jeremy was obviously fuming. He’d always been dramatic, and hated few things more than when people would cut him off. “Fine. Just remember what I said.”

“About stalking me and threatening me and insulting my mom, yes, I’ll be sure to remember all of it.”

Jeremy glared at him but, well, there wasn’t anything more to really say about that, was there? He just turned on his heel and left.

“What, no quippy final one liner?” Ross called after him.

Petty? Yes.

Worth it? Also yes.

The moment that the door closed behind Jeremy, Ross nearly collapsed. Fuck. Fuck, that had been the first time he’d seen him in six months, and it was so that Jeremy could threaten him? Imply that he wanted Ross back? Dredge up all the reasons Ross’d had insomnia for months?

He sat back down at his desk and tried to remember how to breathe. How was he supposed to focus on paperwork now?

Part of him wanted to run to the hospital board and tell them that Jeremy was probably going to try and slander him, and explain the truth.

But that would be jumping the gun. Jeremy could just be bluffing to scare Ross. After all, he didn’t really have anything. It would still be a major problem for Ross if he was called up before the board for a review, but did Jeremy really have any evidence? Was it really worth the trouble to him?

Ross didn’t want to be paranoid. But he also didn’t want to underestimate Jeremy. He’d underestimated him before, had thought that Jeremy really did have good intentions. He hadn’t appreciated how selfish and petty Jeremy could truly be.

He pulled out his phone, wanting to call or text Tom—but what would be the point? All Jeremy had really done was saunter in, be an ass, and then leave again.

There was no reason to get Tom worked up over nothing. He’d wait and see if Jeremy actually did anything with his threats. Then he’d tell him.

Ross laid his head down on his desk. Ugh. And it had been such a good day, too.